Sick Palmetto, resod or tough it out? (pics)

I sodded this st augustine palmetto in late may and it was torched within 6 weeks. Live in Miami with partial shade until 12-1pm where it gets full shade. The grass with more shade looks worse. I diagnosed grey leaf spot and hit it with heritage about 3 weeks ago. Have 6ozs of 3336generic wp on the way and the mancozate w-45 or whatever. Anyhow, do you guys think this is also brown spot or something else? My lawn definetely spruced way up after it got the heritage so imma keep letting it have the fungicides. I also watered everyday for like 3 weeks after having sod layed and think that was bad idea (too much water). Any ideas appreciated.

I'm not a fan of Palmetto. I think I ended up replacing 50% of it I ever installed. 10 years ago I did my lawn with it and it looked wonderful for months. Then it got fungal issues and areas just melted away. That wasn't even in a shady area. I grew tired of fighting it and never used it again. I use Seville in shadier locations. And maybe Bitter Blue if I need to tie it in with Floratam.

In your case it may just be way too shady to even consider grass. A few hours of partial, morning sun may just not be enough. If you are willing to throw more money at it, consider Seville. Palmetto just has too many disease problems to babysit.

I have 1 palmetto lawn that has been in for over 2 years now and overall looks great. 50-60% of it gets full sun for 4-5 hours while other sections get less. Some areas are thin but those are the heavier shaded areas and nothing will get thick in those areas.

IMHO that lawn is totally able to be saved. The runners are abundant so I would not worry too much as I think it could be saved. Now as to way it looks that way currently. If the sod was muck based and you overwatered it this time of year, you could of created the issue yourself. If you under watered it you could of caused it. Palmetto and Seville , especially laid during the worst heat and rains of the season, seem to experience fungal issues. I would venture to bet that with proper care this sod will bounce back during the cooler fall months.

I have seem palmetto perform well in fairly dense shade under proper mgmt and still be fairly thick and lush. Obviously the question that comes to mind with these newbs laying sod at ridiculous prices ...do you trust your install was actually done with palmetto and not a more common cultivar like Floratam?

psshhh, made a typo. I meant to write that I get filtered/mixed shade/sun until 12 - 1pm then it gets mostly full SUN!!! for rest of day.

@landscape poet - No idea if it was floratam but the installar was the one that was onboard with me about the palmetto. I suppose he coulda pulled a switcharoo. The sod looked excellent on install. They didnt roll it and I personally didnt think they preped the soil good enough but I figured they knew what to do. He does a bunch of other lawns in my neighborhood so I chose him.

I kinda really didnt know what I was doing at first and pretty sure I choked it with too much water right off the bat. Was watering for 30minutes a day with homedepot oscilating sprinkler. Did that for a good 3 weeks and it kept getting progressively worse. I also didnt throw any fertilizer down till last week when I put some lesco 15-0-15 granules. The heritage granules really worked. Im waiting on my generic clearys 3336. Was told they used to use 8oz of the wp on 1000sf, is that the recomended dose? Ive heard the 2oz that is legal is not quite good enough. I of course would keep it legal just curious.

Anyone think I should do some plugs or new sod chunks or just straight up try to revive this one? It is looking better after the heritage and am sure I will need to keep a steady stream of different fungicides on it during peak pressure for this to do well.

Oh ya, I know water 2xweek for 30 minutes. My question is, here in Miami if we getting many rains should I just skip waterings or always keep it 2xweek. I see these guys in my neighborhood watering everyday and have the brightest greenes laws. Guess I suck

Up close. I can see I need to spraw ASAP when my clearys gets here. The GLS is starting to develop again. The heritage granules dried out the spots really well but I see new moist grey spots developing. Or atleast thats what im guesstimating...

@landscape poet - No idea if it was floratam but the installar was the one that was onboard with me about the palmetto. I suppose he coulda pulled a switcharoo. The sod looked excellent on install. They didnt roll it and I personally didnt think they preped the soil good enough but I figured they knew what to do. He does a bunch of other lawns in my neighborhood so I chose him.

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If he mows your lawn tell him to sharpen his blades, the photo's have several torn blades...then inspect what you expect. Tearing the grass is just another stresser it does not need right now. LET IT GROW. You want it to fill in....LET IT GROW and let it grown tall. If your guy is using a commercial mower he should not have a issue mowing it above 4 inches. Again inspect what you expect. The taller grass will help with root development and general health of the turf.

I kinda really didnt know what I was doing at first and pretty sure I choked it with too much water right off the bat. Was watering for 30minutes a day with homedepot oscilating sprinkler. Did that for a good 3 weeks and it kept getting progressively worse. I also didnt throw any fertilizer down till last week when I put some lesco 15-0-15 granules. The heritage granules really worked. Im waiting on my generic clearys 3336. Was told they used to use 8oz of the wp on 1000sf, is that the recomended dose? Ive heard the 2oz that is legal is not quite good enough. I of course would keep it legal just curious.

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Do not get too carried away with the fungicides. You will not only spend a fortune but also wipe out the good fungi too in many cases. The pictures you showed do exhibit GLS but I would not be as concerned about it unless it starts to thin the turf in a major way again. How did the lawn respond to the fertilizer you applied? At what rate per K did you apply? I am not a experienced applicator but I would think that too much N could be a stressor and maybe the potash and micro nutrients would be your friends more than just N. If the lawn responded well to the N and you got a good response that may be the way to go. Maybe some of the applicators here could try to advise what their best practices are when fighting major GLS.

Anyone think I should do some plugs or new sod chunks or just straight up try to revive this one? It is looking better after the heritage and am sure I will need to keep a steady stream of different fungicides on it during peak pressure for this to do well.

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Again I think proper mgmt will see this turf establish into a healthy stand. I know you may not want to hear this...but sometimes it is better to just let the pro's handle it. A good small to medium size fert guy will give you the best chance to get this lawn established well. I can assure you in the short term it will be much cheaper than you trying to buy fungicides etc that are expensive and then to only possibly still lose the lawn.

Oh ya, I know water 2xweek for 30 minutes. My question is, here in Miami if we getting many rains should I just skip waterings or always keep it 2xweek. I see these guys in my neighborhood watering everyday and have the brightest greenes laws. Guess I suck

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Generally I have been told that often GLS is the symptom of too much N , water and essentially the leaf staying wet too long from overwatering, too much cloud coverage , watering during the evening when the tissue does not get a chance to dry off as quickly. If you can maybe trying to monitor the turf for signs of slight drought and watering then and only then???? Anyone else have thoughts on this?

By the way...one of the most effective solutions to GLS that I had ever found for my lawn which used to tend to suffer from GLS during period of extreme rainfall......CORNMEAL . I dropped 20lbs per K...made the lawn greener than heck within a week and new growth came out all over without any signs of GLS on it, so if you do not want to take my advise and hire a small to medium sized PCO with a good rep....I would try the Cornmeal if you are able to find. It it funny how well it responded to that treatment even better than heritage which of course is a small fortune per K.

One last thing..you never asked if it was muck based or sand based. If muck based...that generally requires much less water than sand IMHO for establishment...however if over watered it can lead to a more stressful install for all involved vs sand based.